Karnataka: Two poll officials suspended after NGO took voter data showing fake government ID
The non-governmental organisation had been asked by the Bengaluru civic body to conduct a voter awareness drive.
The Election Commission suspended two poll officials in Karnataka days after allegations emerged that a non-governmental organisation collected voter data by impersonating as government officers, PTI reported.
The poll body has also directed officials to review the deletions and additions in the voter lists of three Assembly seats in the state.
On November 17, the Congress had filed a police complaint against Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Bengaluru civic body commissioner and other officials after the allegations were reported by news websites The News Minute and Pratidhvani.
The investigation had found that the NGO, Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute, was given permission by civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to conduct a voter awareness drive to revise electoral rolls ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls.
For carrying out the task, the NGO, which is linked to an election management company, issued fake identification cards for its field agents who impersonated as booth level officers of the Bengaluru civic body, according to The News Minute.
The NGO workers then collected personal information from voters such as their caste, mother tongue, marital status, age, gender, employment and education details, Aadhaar Card number, phone number, address, Voter ID number and email address, the news report said. The workers also asked the voters for information about the performance of their elected representatives.
On Friday, the Election Commission issued directions to suspend additional District Election Officers S Rangappa and K Srinivas. They were in charge of the Shivajinagar, Chickpet and Mahadevapura constituencies, according to PTI.
The chief electoral officer of Karnataka has also been asked to share a list of all deletions and additions done in the electoral rolls of the Shivajinagar, Chickpet and Mahadevapura Assembly seats since January 1, 2002.
The actions were taken after the Election Commission found in an inquiry that unauthorised identity cards, identifying private individuals as booth-level officers of the Bengaluru civic body, had been issued in the three constituencies.
